Gobble! Gobble!

Stuart and I always make a full Thanksgiving spread, even back when it was just the two of us. Now there are four and the 2 little ones don't really care what we eat. But we still stayed up way too late last night (or is that this morning?) preparing a full Thanksgiving meal.

We could have slept later this morning but with little kids in the house that is a foreign concept to us. We eventually got the bird in the oven and finished up some last minute details for our big dinner. While we were puttering around in the kitchen, the kids did a great job of playing together on their own.

Well, I thought so until I realized that Rachel had been standing on TOP of her play kitchen!

So to keep my wild little Indians entertained (and safe!), I printed off a turkey template from DLTK and put them to work writing down what they are thankful for.

I loved hearing about some of the things they were thankful for.

We cut out all of the pieces and put them together to make little turkeys of gratitude. Nicholas listed that he is thankful for music, a roof, trees, TV, God, food, a DS (Nintendo, that is), my family, and Legos.

Rachel is thankful for stop signs, chicken, my play kitchen, my family, my big brother, pink baby, animals, and turkey.

Speaking of turkey....it's done! We always use the Alton Brown Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe. It uses a brine so there is some prep the day before but it's easy and oh, so worth it!

We also had Stuart's family recipes for dressing and sweet potato crunch plus I tried a new recipe for a corn and bacon casserole. ummmm, bacon....

We even got out the charger plates, china, and crystal to do it up right.

We are thankful for our health and our families.

We are thankful for our home and our jobs which provide our home and put this delicious food on our table.

We are thankful for determination and willingness to try new things.

We are thankful for the laughter in our home.

We are so thankful for hugs from our children!

But we are most thankful for those that have gone before us, who followed their dreams and their destiny to fight for freedom and the making of this great nation.

Thanks Be To God!

Konos Stewardship: Muscles

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: NERF - Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun

As we are studying about keeping the body healthy through exercise, Nicholas has been learning about the muscles of the body. He's learned about the tree types of muscles - smooth, skeletal, and cardiac.

I picked up a steak in the "manager's special" (aka "it's going bad soon") section for $2.00. I cut muscle fibers from the meat and prepared them on slides so that Nicholas could look at them with the microscope.

He really likes his microscope. Granddad gave it to him as a Christmas present a while back. He had been too young to work with it reliably by himself but he is an old pro at it now and can entertain himself for an hour at a time with it. It's a cool microscope because it is digital so he can see the image on my laptop. This makes it so much easier for me to see what he is looking at and to point to things on the slide that I want to be sure he notices.

We can even capture video and still pictures. Here we were looking at the muscle fibers and the black striations that cross the fibers. This is only found in skeletal muscles.

Nicholas has also learned to identify the names and locations of some of the major skeletal muscles in his body. He has also learned how a muscle works through contracting and extending. He even made a model of his arm to demonstrate it. He used a cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper and cut out a piece the length of his humerus bone. Then he measured his forearm and cut out another piece of cardboard to match. He cut this forearm piece in half lengthwise and taped them together to form his radius and ulna bones.

He labeled his bones carefully.

He straightened out a paper clip and used that to connect the humerus to his forearm bones.

He attached the forearm bones together with a rubber band in place of a wrist.

Then he blew up two long red balloons just slightly and I helped him attach them to his bones. He then demonstrated how the bicep muscle extends when the arm is straight...

...and how it contracts when the forearm is pulled up.

It was neat that he finished up his model while Granddad was here so he was able to show off his work to Granddad.

Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers

I've recently started relying on frozen meals for my lunch because, unlike my children, I just can't eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day but I've got to many other things to do than to spend a lot of time fussing over making a tasty meal for myself.

I recently learned that Healthy Choice teamed up with Bravo’s Top Chef to introduce an exclusive line of eight Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers.

Oooh, I love Top Chef so I knew that these would make a yummy addition to my freezer!

The flavors are bold, innovative, and exciting and include such delicious meals as Barbeque Seasoned Steak with Red Potatoes, Chicken Fresca with Chardonnay, Chicken Linguini with Red Pepper Alfredo, Chicken Margherita with Balsamic, Grilled Chicken Marinara with Parmesan, Grilled Chicken Pesto with Vegetables, Grilled Vegetables Mediterranean with Rice, and Roasted Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms.

They offer exactly what I'm looking for - food that is healthy, delicious, and easy to make! The packaging uses a proprietary steaming technology that produces a fresh-tasting meal in minutes. It's not like some microwave meals that just come out limp and unappetizing. Healthy Choice uses a unique steaming technology that separates the sauce from the rest of the entrée to steam the meal in the microwave, allowing for crisp vegetables, tender meats and al dente pastas.

One of my favorites is the Grilled Chicken Pesto with Vegetables. I made it for lunch today so I thought I'd show you just how cool this steaming process really is. You remove the meal from the carton and put it in the microwave. Don't puncture the cover or open one corner. Don't touch it! It is self-venting and will cook just fine if you don't do a thing.

My meal cooked for 4 1/2 minutes. I removed the film from the top and then lifted the steamer basket which was full of chicken tenderloins, rotini pasta, zucchini, and spinach. Then I stirred the steamed food into the outer sauce bowl.

So simple! Quick and easy as well as healthy and delicous!

Check out the Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers for yourself. Make sure to grab a Healthy Choice coupon before you head to the grocery store.

For more information about the Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers, please visit the Healthy Choice website or Bravo's Top Chef website. You can also follow Healthy Choice on Facebook Twitter at @Healthy_Choice.

Note: Healthy Choice provided me with two Healthy Choice Top Chef Inspired Café Steamers to try. The opinions here are entirely my own. I would not choose to promote a product unless I truly felt that it was worthy of a recommendation.

Granddad's Visit

Grandad came to visit us for a few days!

No special reason...just because.

It's nice when he comes to visit us because we can just focus on spending time with him. When we go to Louisiana to visit, we have to juggle our time between him, my brother, my mom, and Stuart's side of the family too. It makes for a busy trip with lots of running around and occasional headaches.

For a few days, we got to just sit around and let Granddad soak up fun times with his grandchildren.

Playing with puzzles.

Going for a ride in the rocket ship...that's Granddad sitting on the couch in the Care Bears tent while Nicholas flies their ship out in front. Thanks for being such a good sport, Granddad!

We got a little bit of school work done while Granddad was here but we'll catch up on what we missed next week. Since we have been studying about being a good steward of our bodies, I found an Amelia Bedelia book where she plays a doctor and sees several patients. We love Amelia Bedelia books because she is just so silly! It was fun letting Nicholas get his reading done by reading to his Granddad!

There is always time for snuggling on the couch while watching TV.

We had a nice dinner at Magic Time Machine but for some reason the wait staff just wasn't as much fun as they were the last time we went. It was still an unusual experience and the food is yummy.

Nicholas had two hockey games this weekend and Granddad got to see him play at the game on Saturday in Richardson.

Rachel and Granddad had frosted mini wheat cereal for breakfast. Rachel made sure to scoot her chair as close to Granddad's chair as possible. Once Granddad had finished his cereal, Rachel proceeded to share hers with him by giving him a spoonful of milk and cereal in his bowl.

She had a lot of fun transferring the cereal with her spoon.

Then she said, "Eat it, Granddad! Eat it!" And he did!

...much to Rachel's delight...and of course, she did it again and again after that!

We had fun at a park exploring the creek bed and collecting leaves.

Rachel showed Granddad one of her file folder games where she matches the different butterflies.

Granddad tried to trick her and tell her to put the butterfly on the wrong spot but she just laughed and did it the right way. I love how silly he gets with the kids sometimes.

Heading out for the airport, we got some quick pictures together. Dad just turned 70 and although I didn't get to be there for his birthday, he got to come visit as kind of a late birthday celebration...although life with the kids is so busy that we didn't really do anything for his birthday like I had planned. But still it was nice getting to spend quality time with him.

And of course, my kids have had a wonderful time getting all of Granddad's attention!

The whole visit, Granddad rode in the back of the van so he could sit next to Nicholas. He only sat in the front seat like a big boy for one short trip while Nicholas was at art class. I know it's not the most comfortable ride back there and the conversation is off the wall but the kids love him for it and their little lips roll out if he tries to sit in the front seat next to me.

As we were dropping Dad off at the airport, Nicholas suddenly decided to get out too and pretend to be heading back to Louisiana with Granddad. Rachel got very upset and grabbed Nicholas arm as she said, "No, stay here! Don't go!"

One more hug before you go!

Thanks for coming to visit us. We love you, Granddad!

On Children by Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet "On Children"

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies, but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannont visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you,
for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark on the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with his might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hands be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so he also loves the bow that is stable.